Trulli: "I didn't know about NASCAR until Juan Pablo Montoya made his move, the world has changed and everyone is looking at different Series. I haven't signed with anyone yet and I've talked to teams. My door is open right now."

Somebody should tell Jarno that NASCAR is not a series to race with your doors open

Should it happen, even as a Kimi fan, I think McLaren would end up having the last laugh. -Brawn car is under-developed for 2010. Macca could easily make a rocketship.-Macca get #1 and #2 cars. With two WDCs. British WDCs. A PR whore's wet dream, shall we say. -Mercedes are like the rebound chick. Plus they'd have to pay the salary Macca didn't want to. Again, something to 'brag' about...

Merc need someone to lead them, Kimi fast, but if all his stated aim is to drive, do rallys and no PR days, is that really going to be a good option for Merc?If they do hire him is it a panic buy?

Merc need someone to lead them, Kimi fast, but if all his stated aim is to drive, do rallys and no PR days, is that really going to be a good option for Merc?If they do hire him is it a panic buy?

I see it more as an impulse buy than anything else. Kimi is great, fast, consistent, but lacks leadership and motivation to be a true leader. He never had to assume that role at Ferrari and McLaren, but will probably have to do so at Mercedes.

I see it more as an impulse buy than anything else. Kimi is great, fast, consistent, but lacks leadership and motivation to be a true leader. He never had to assume that role at Ferrari and McLaren, but will probably have to do so at Mercedes.

Could someone explain all this stuff I always see of people talking about how important it is for a driver to be a leader? I understand that Schumacher was sort of a leader in a very useful way to the extent that he brought all the guys over from Benetton and was vocal about who else he wanted on the team, thereby completely turning Ferrari around and making it what it is today.

However, I know of no other driver in recent history doing that kind of thing and I don't see any other drivers having even the possibility of doing that kind of thing again.

So what other kind of leadership must be meant by these kinds of comments? It's not like this is a sport where there are a large number of guys on a field that need to work together to move a ball up the field or something -- it's two separate guys in separate cars not able to talk to each other usually competing against each other to individually win car races. What does a "leader" driver do exactly? Be better than Ross Brawn and lead the team better than Ross Brown? Is that what someone like Kimi would be poor at relative to someone else?

He has confirmed that after Button had signed with Mclaren, Mercedes went after Steve Robertson and then clinched a deal that will see Raikkonen on a Silver Arrow in 2010. Everything is settled and he/we is only waiting for the official confirmation.

He spoke quite clearly and with lots of certainty indicating that he is more than sure this is happening and will be announced sooner rather than later. I mean, he talked about it as fact, not as rumour.

He has confirmed that after Button had signed with Mclaren, Mercedes went after Steve Robertson and then clinched a deal that will see Raikkonen on a Silver Arrow in 2010. Everything is settled and he/we is only waiting for the official confirmation.

He spoke quite clearly and with lots of certainty indicating that he is more than sure this is happening and will be announced sooner rather than later. I mean, he talked about it as fact, not as rumour.

Hamilton carried the team on his shoulders this year, and even last year.

Alonso... well with Renault.. from 2004 to 2006 + 2008-2009.

How's that different from simply "really good driver"? People are talking about certain people being team leaders (eg Hamilton) and others not being team leaders (eg Raikkonen). I'm just trying to understand what the "team leaders" are doing other than driving really well. Was Button the best team leader for the first seven races in row and Raikkonen the best team leader during the period when he scored the most points of anyone 5 races in a row? Would either of these two been a team leader had they had really poor teammates like Piquet Jr or Grosjean? Is there any distinction here between "team leader" and "really good driver"? That's what I'm trying to understand.

I'd think it's Gary. As far as I know, they don't have any young drivers, and I'm not sure whether Pedro is eligible for young driver testing (better check that one out).

EDIT

- -ii) three one day young driver training tests carried out between the end of the last Event of theChampionship and 31 December of the same year, any such driver having not competed inmore than two F1 World Championship Events;- -

Then the BBC should know better (and it's something I have ranted about before on here).

F1-Live and a whole host of other web/parasites use a news syndicate from Australia called GMM.

GMM aggregate F1 news stories (and unreliable ones at that) and then resell them to news sites across the globe. Problem is, that most of the stories are badly translated and they often seem to deliberately miss vital information in to make them sound more exciting than they actually are.

Example: Alonso's plane crash incident about a year ago. GMM 'accidentally' missed the word 'taxiing' from their news release and made the factual, but dull, story sound much more exciting then it actually was - Alonso's plane brushed a fence.

If you trace back many of F1's controversies (the kind that get fans all riled up), you'll probably find a GMM misquote at the root of it all.

They need to make money, but aren't journalists. They're sensationalist rubbish. And importantly, they have a quota of stories to produce daily, which if memory serves me well is between 8-15 a day. Imagine doing that during the off season?

I know all that. But this is a rumours' thread, and I thought, let's post a rumour. There's been worse gossip in this thread the past year.

Ok, but then there's absolutely nothing substantial to even warrant the rumour/speculation that de la Rosa is going to Force India is there in that article?

All it states is:

That option is now believed closed due to a lack of interest by Spanish sponsors, but Spanish radio sources Onda Cero and Radio Marca have reported that Force India is a possibility. In fact, the sources said an announcement could be imminent.

I know this thread isn't to be taken seriously, but you must concede that that^ isn't anything to go on is it?

Then the BBC should know better (and it's something I have ranted about before on here).

F1-Live and a whole host of other web/parasites use a news syndicate from Australia called GMM.

GMM aggregate F1 news stories (and unreliable ones at that) and then resell them to news sites across the globe. Problem is, that most of the stories are badly translated and they often seem to deliberately miss vital information in to make them sound more exciting than they actually are.

Example: Alonso's plane crash incident about a year ago. GMM 'accidentally' missed the word 'taxiing' from their news release and made the factual, but dull, story sound much more exciting then it actually was - Alonso's plane brushed a fence.

If you trace back many of F1's controversies (the kind that get fans all riled up), you'll probably find a GMM misquote at the root of it all.

They need to make money, but aren't journalists. They're sensationalist rubbish. And importantly, they have a quota of stories to produce daily, which if memory serves me well is between 8-15 a day. Imagine doing that during the off season?

I know this thread isn't to be taken seriously, but you must concede that that^ isn't anything to go on is it?

Well, the interesting bit -- or rather, the bit that makes it all rather silly -- is this: "is tipped to". By whom, I ask... as, probably, do you. However, Adrián Campos Suñer stated a few days ago: "I would like to sign Pedro de la Rosa but he is Spanish and Spanish sponsors are in a bad way. There are other options, from Russia and Venezuela, but that all depends on the sponsors."

So, I believe it's safe to assume that Pedro Martínez de la Rosa will not be at Campos Meta Team, next season, and I think we'll agree that saying where he will end up, like GMM, through F1-Live, is doing, is mere guesswork. But that's where this thread comes in...;)

Then the BBC should know better (and it's something I have ranted about before on here).

At least the Beeb are putting stuff like that in a gossip column.

They're not dressing it up as fact, and to me it seems that they are partly using the column to alert their readers about rumours that they probably don't feel are substantial enough to post a full story on.